Walgreens to open 24-hour pharmacy

Walgreens will open its first 24-hour pharmacy in Amarillo on the northwest corner of 34th Avenue and Bell Street in January, a company official said.

Construction should begin this month on the 15,120 square-foot store, which will bring 35 to 40 jobs to Amarillo, said Carol Hively, a corporate spokeswoman for the Deerfield, Ill.,-based Walgreen Co.

People need medicine at all times of the day and night, she said, which was the impetus behind such stores.

An official at the Texas Tech School of Pharmacy said the store will be a welcome addition to the community.

"From my perspective, it's an absolute necessity that we have one, if not more than one, pharmacy that's opened past 11 o'clock through the night-time hours, . . . just from the standpoint that we have emergencies," said Glenn Anderson, director of drug information and health policy development at the Texas Tech School of Pharmacy.

Walgreen Co. owns 355 stores in Texas, including 72 that are open 24 hours, Hively said. The company hopes to increase the total number of stores to 480 by 2004.

Walgreen Co. reported June sales of $2,045,800,000, an increase of 14.8 percent from $1,782,308,000 for June of 2000, with sales in stores that have been open at least a year rising 9.3 percent.